


More Than Just a Game For Two

by likeasouffle



Category: Glee
Genre: F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-25 23:00:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/958628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeasouffle/pseuds/likeasouffle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tina had had an idea of how this whole soulmate thing would go. This… was not it. (Soulmate AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than Just a Game For Two

Tina and Mike were together a long time without ever getting their soul marks.

The marks typically appear when they’re needed, during a period of ongoing, crushing loneliness. Kurt got his early. Mercedes didn’t have one yet and was pretty fine with that. Rachel complained loudly that _apparently_ her passion and frustration weren’t enough to make the _right_ kind of body chemistry to make her mark appear. Santana had tried hard to keep hers away, by fucking anyone who wanted her, and was endlessly irritated that it hadn’t worked.

In any case, Tina and Mike didn’t need theirs. They found each other young, and gave each other companionship and support. They comforted and consoled each each, made each other come, made each other laugh… They knew they were supposed to be together and didn’t need marks to prove it. It’s like if you puff up when you touch peanuts; there’s no point getting an allergy test to prove you should stay away from them.

They met at Mike’s locker every morning, kissed and rubbed their noses together, and Mike laughed at the way it made her scrunch up her face. They held hands in the hallways, and the feeling of his thumb rubbing over hers sent tingles up her arm to her heart. They ate lunch together in the cafeteria with their friends, and they’d complain about their schoolwork, tell each other jokes, practice their duets. Every Sunday they’d go out for Dim Sum with Mike’s mom - annoyingly routine, but nice to be included. And every chance they got they’d find a secret hideaway to kiss and touch and fuck and gasp into each other’s mouths.

The only thing that was weird about it was calling each other “boyfriend” and “girlfriend,” not “soulmate.” It sounded so silly and temporary. It didn’t _feel_ temporary. It felt perfect and loving and eternal. But you can’t say it if you don’t have a mark, so they didn’t.

Everything was wonderful, until Mike graduated and went off to college. They decided to remain a couple, long distance, and just wait out the year until Tina graduated too, and hopefully she’d get into a school in the same city. But nothing could have prepared her for the way it would feel to be without him.

She chatted with Sam and Blaine in the hallways, but no one kissed her nose or held her hand. She ate lunch with her friends, trying to include herself in the conversation, feeling like just one of many individuals, alone in a crowd. Every Sunday she asked her parents if they wanted to have lunch together, maybe out at a restaurant. Sometimes they said yes, sometimes they said no, which was fine, but she found herself longing for the comfort of knowing in advance. And there were definitely no sexy rendezvous in any secret hideaways.

Tina called when she needed to, but Mike was so busy with his full courseload and new friends and even learning how to run a little household without his parents around. He said he felt like a failure if there were dirty dishes in the sink, and apparently he was staying late at school every day to try to keep up with the rest of the class. And he had met people he wanted to spend time with on top of that, and he said he wanted to make sure he didn’t blow them off and make them think he wasn’t interested.

So Tina would call, and Mike would greet her warmly and say he was glad to hear from her, but then he would ask what she wanted to talk about, and she wouldn’t know what to say. He would always be in the middle of something important, and she’d say “nothing in particular I guess…” and they’d say goodbye and she’d hang up feeling worse than she had in the first place.

It was only a few months into the school year, and she had another - god, six months? - of this to look forward to, and it wasn’t like she was crying herself to sleep at night but she kind of wished she’d never met Mike in the first place so she wouldn’t have had to endure this separation. At least if she’d been alone all along she’d have nothing to compare it to.

Then the letters started to appear. Little blotchy freckles at first, until one became a definite B just by the crook of her elbow. _B?_ Yes, definitely a B. After about a week, it said Bo. She had a selfish little moment where she kind of wondered if it was meant to say Blaine, and maybe the L just hadn’t come in yet, or the stem on the A. But no, it was definitely Bo.

"Who the _hell_ is _Bo_?!” she cried on the phone to Mike. “I don’t even _know_ a Bo!” He consoled her as best he could until finally her real fear came out. “I don’t want to break up with you.”

"Well then, let’s not break up."

She wiped her nose and clutched the phone harder. “What?”

"There’s no reason we have to, right? We could just stay together. Unless… you don’t want to be with me anymore?"

"Mike! Of course I do!"

"I just, I mean, after I’ve been such a terrible boyfriend."

"No you haven’t," she sobbed.

"I swear, Tina, I had no idea things were so bad. If I had known you were _that_ lonely -“

"I know, I’m sorry. I just never know how to - You always seem so busy."

"I promise I’ll try to make more time for us."

"We used to just talk about nothing, just whatever was going on in our day…"

"We should definitely do that again."

"And a long Skype call every Sunday?"

Mike gasped. “Like a _routine_? What have you done with my Tina!”

She giggle-sobbed and kind of snorted in the back of her nose.

"I would love to spend my Sunday afternoons with you." She could hear him smiling. "And hey, maybe I can visit to like, teach dance to some of the glee kids? Maybe I can work it out so it counts as credit for my program."

"Mike! That would be _amazing_.”

His tone turned more serious. “I miss you so much. I’m so sorry you ever had to feel that alone.”

"Mike?" Tina chewed her lip and wiped at her eyes. "What about this Bo person?"

"What about him?"

"Well, I mean, he’s my _soulmate_ apparently. What if I meet him?”

"Well… just don’t go looking for him. Maybe you won’t."

Tina laughed out loud. What a delightful, crazy, stupid, amazing idea. Just… don’t look. She shook her head and grinned. “I love you.”

She heard him sigh, content. “I love you too.”


End file.
